What Are The Odds
by The Blue Raven
Summary: Declan encounters a student who he believes can predict the future, but she just wants to be left alone.
1. String of Coincidences

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What Are the Odds 

Summary: Declan encounters a student who he believes can predict the future, but she just wants to be left alone.

Rating: PG

Disclaimer: Lion's Gate owns all. If I get my birthday wish, I might end up owning Lion's Gate, but until then, I've got nothing...

Feedback: Pretty please? Feed me, feed me!!! It's my first MW fic, so, good, bad, or ugly, let me know what you think.

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Chapter 1 -- String of Coincidences

"Papers due today!" Declan reminded the class as the daily exodus began. 

He shook his head as half the class failed to turn around. The other half slowly straggled back towards the desk, fishing their papers out of their bags or folders. Smiling, he gathered the papers together and clipped them, then noticed that one student was still at her seat, searching her bag. 

"I know I put it in here," she muttered, shaking her head.

Declan smiled. "Try looking right in front of you, Gabe."

Gabriella Watts looked up, startled and picked up the paper that she had placed on the table at the beginning of class. "Oh. Thank you." Shaking her head, she rose and handed the paper to him. "Sorry. Scatter-brained today..."

Declan smiled and nodded. "It's okay. I'm the same way sometimes. Bad day?"

"Always," she muttered, kneeling next to Mole. "Hey, fella," she said, scratching his ears.

Declan smiled and gathered the rest of the papers together. "You have lots of bad days?" he asked, looking at her curiously. She was smart, but incredibly quiet and reserved. She would occasionally provide answers in class, but only when it became obvious that no one else was going to. She was a lot like Miranda had been at first, needing to be drawn out.

She shrugged. "You know. Life..." She shook her head and moved her hand to the underside of Mole's muzzle, grinning as he started wagging his tale. "He's a big sweetie."

"Chick magnet, too," Declan bantered softly, trying to get a smile from her.

Because he was looking at her to gauge her response to the admittedly bad joke, he saw what happened to clearly to think that he was mistaken. Gabe jerked her hand away from Mole's face two seconds _before_ he snapped at her. Startled and off-balance, she sprawled backwards, landing on her back with a grunt. Mole bristled and started barking.

"Jeez!" Declan muttered, circling quickly around the desk and helping her to her feet. "Mole!" he shouted over the dog's barking, staring at Gabe in amazement. "Are you okay?"

She nodded, still looking a little shaken. "Yeah."

"Mole! What is _wrong_ with you?" Declan demanded.

"It's okay. Something must have startled him." Gabe knelt next to the dog and made soothing noises in the back of her throat. The barks soon subsided into whimpers. "Yeah, poor guy's spooked over something."

"He's never done anything like that before, I swear," Declan said, kneeling next to her. "Are you okay? Did he break the skin?"

She shook her head. "Didn't even connect."

"Good reflexes," Declan observed, recalling what he had seen. She had _known_ that Mole was about to lunge.

She shrugged. "I kick-box. You learn to move fast."

"Yeah, sure." Declan nodded, glancing at her curiously. "What do you think spooked him?"

She shrugged. "Dogs are perceptive creatures. Could be anything. Change in the weather. Impending earthquake..." She shook her head. "Not important." She gave Mole one last scratch behind the ears and climbed to her feet.

Declan frowned thoughtfully. "He _did_ predict an earthquake last year, but he didn't try to _bite_ anyone."

"Maybe it's going to be a big one..." She shrugged and walked to her seat, loading her books into her backpack. "Have a nice weekend, Professor Dunn." She slung her backpack onto her shoulder, then paused. "Hey, you're speaking to Anth Club tomorrow, aren't you? Faith healings?"

He smiled and nodded. "Yeah. See you there?"

She nodded and reversed directions, following him out the other door. "You really believe in that all that stuff?"

"What, faith healings?" Declan asked he asked her. "Mole, coming?" he called when the dog did not move.

"All that stuff you study. Miracles and stuff."

"Don't you?" Declan asked, glancing at her.

She shook her head, looking dubious. "I really think... Mole, fella, what's wrong?" She turned to stare curiously at the dog who was standing in the center of the classroom, whimpering loudly. 

To Declan's surprise, she wrapped a tight hand around his arm and all but pulled him back into the classroom. As he started to shrug out of her grasp, the first tremor hit.

"Jeez!" Declan gasped, grabbing her arm and half-pushing her towards a table. "Mole!"

The dog quickly joined them under the table. Gabe curled up on the floor with her head between her knees until the first tremor passed. She looked up cautiously.

"It's times like this that I miss Indiana and the bedrock it's built on," she muttered, looking around with wide eyes.

"You okay?" Declan asked, starting to climb out from under the table.

She grabbed his arm and pulled him towards her, back under the table. "Aren't there usually aftershocks or something?" she asked in response to his surprised expression.

On cue, another, stronger tremor rocked the classroom. Lights came lose from their brackets on the ceiling and crashed to the floor, shattering and exploding, leaving the room a mine-field of glass and sparking wires.

When it had passed, Declan pulled Gabe to her feet. "We should get outside."

She nodded shakily and followed him quickly from the building. "I thought... I thought that kind of thing only happened in California," she muttered, shaking her head. "I've never actually... _been_ in one before."

"You okay?" Declan asked her gently.

"Little, um, shaken," she admitted. "I think I can kiss my Hummel collection goodbye."

Declan winced. "Ouch. Sorry."

She nodded. "No big deal. I'm still alive. This is... good."

"You going to be able to make it home okay?" he asked her.

She nodded again. "Yeah, thanks."

"You sure?" Declan asked. She looked _really_ shaken.

Another nod, this one more confident. "Positive. Thanks, though. I'm good." Nodding, she turned and walked off.

Declan stared after her, frowning. "Mole, is it just me, or did she know that was going to happen?"

"Is it safe to go back in?" one student asked another nearby. "I've got class..."

"Consider it canceled," Declan told him with a sigh.

***

"Oh, jeez," Declan muttered, staring into his office and shaking his head.

"Declan!"

"Miranda! You okay?" he asked, turning to face her.

She nodded. "Lab's history, but everyone got out okay. Are you okay?" She glanced around him into the shattered remains of the office. "Oh, my God! Declan, were you hurt?"

He shook his head quickly. "No, I'm fine. I wasn't in there. I was in the lecture-hall with a student when it hit."

"Don't you usually talk to students in your office?" she asked, frowning.

He nodded. "Yeah. She was... having trouble finding a paper." He frowned thoughtfully, going over the sequence of events in his mind.

"Declan?" Miranda asked, looking at him curiously.

"Um..." He shrugged. "No, I just... for a second, I was thinking that she knew it was going to happen." He shook his head. "Don't think so, though." He exhaled deeply, remembering the restraining hand on his arm, half-dragging him back into the classroom and out of the hallway. The hallway that had been absolutely demolished in the first quake... Then the hand pulling him back under the desk moments before the second quake hit, destroying the classroom.

"You think she predicted this?" Miranda asked.

"Dogs can. Why not people?"

Miranda frowned. "Declan..."

"She grabbed my arm and pulled me from the hall into the classroom _moments_ before the first tremor."

"Really?" Miranda asked.

He nodded. "She was the _only_ reason I was still in that classroom in the first place. Because she asked me something about Anthropology Club..." He rubbed his mouth thoughtfully. "Those are two _huge_ coincidences, Miranda."

She nodded, admitting this. "Yeah, but... _predicting_ an earthquake?"

"Mole tried to bite her! She predicted _that_, too."

Miranda frowned. "Mole doesn't bite."

"Right, he _doesn't_. But he tried to bite her. And she _knew_ he was about to... Miranda, she has pet Mole every day this semester before _and_ after class without incident. But she _knew_..."

"Okay, _maybe_ she picked up on Mole's nervousness. Maybe it..."

"Made her decide that there was going to be an earthquake?" Declan shook his head. "I don't think so."

"Did you ask her?"

He shook her head. "She was a wreck from the quake. She's never been in one before."

"So, ask her at the Anthropology Club meeting tomorrow."

Declan nodded. "Good idea. I think I might just do that."

***

"What it all comes down to is this," Declan explained in response to the question. "You either believe in divine intervention in everyday life or you _don't_. Take yesterday's quake. My office was _trashed_. If I had been in there, I probably would not have survived..." He glanced at Gabe and saw her shift uncomfortably. "Now, the only reason that I _wasn't_ in my office is because a student couldn't find a paper that was lying in plain sight. Now I'm not sure _what_ to call that, except lucky." He smiled faintly. "But it got me thinking. Because everything that followed from _that_ combined to keep me safe in that earthquake."

"Bit of a stretch to call that divine intervention, isn't it?" a student asked.

Declan shrugged. "Might be, James. But as my friends will tell you, I'm not above stretching a little bit sometimes. _But_, my friends will _also_ tell you that, occasionally, things happen that just can't be explained away. Maybe I _am_ biased. Or maybe I've just seen too much to close my eyes to the fact that there's a higher power out there."

"Where's free will fit into a world-view like that?" another student inquired.

"Well, Kelly," Declan began, launching into his pre-fabricated explanation of the distinction between divine intervention and divine control, the difference between fate and predestination, etc. The meeting ended up running over, a common occurrence when Declan spoke.

As soon as he finished, Gabe grabbed her bag and bolted for the hall. "Hey, Gabe!" Declan called, hurrying after her.

She paused, an almost trapped expression on her face. "Thanks for not mentioning names in there," she muttered, looking at her feet.

"I read your paper. It was well-written." He smiled at her. "You're not an anthropology student, are you?"

She shook her head. "Psychology Grad. Just... dabbling, really."

He nodded. "Cool. The two disciplines really ask a lot of the same questions, you know."

She nodded slowly. "I'd noticed."

"Want to discuss some of those questions over a cup of coffee?" Declan suggested casually.

"You're a professor, I'm a student."

"Which makes both of us curious Academics." He grinned reassuringly. "I don't bite."

"I don't know..." She hesitated, shaking her head. "I'm a psychology student. Might look bad if I start getting cozy with an Anthropology Prof..."

"I won't tell if you don't..."

She shook her head, looking faintly disgusted. "Okay, now... that level of adorableness should be _illegal_ in adults."

Declan smiled uncertainty. "I don't speak cynic. Is that a yes?"

She rolled her eyes and nodded. "Yeah, whatever. Coffee, academia, harmless." She glanced thoughtfully at him and nodded. "Harmless," she repeated slowly.

***

"You know, they gave me a _really_ funny look when I asked for a mocha with a double-shot of chocolate syrup, two extra shots of espresso, and an extra scoop of cocoa," Declan told Gabe with a smile, handing her the drink in question as he sat down across from her with his own cappuccino.

"Yeah, it's an acquired taste." Gabe shrugged. "Chocolate covers the coffee taste, though."

"If you don't like coffee, what's with the espresso shots?" Declan asked, laughing.

"I'm a grad-student." She shrugged as though the conclusion was obvious.

Declan smiled and nodded. It actually _was_ fairly obvious. In his own grad-school days, students had been in the habit of washing down caffeine pills with coffee. No longer necessary now that espresso was popular. He had seen more self-destructive modes of caffeine-delivery in his time, though, and was not about to comment on a few extra espresso shots.

He regarded her in silence for a few moments as she sipped her drink, then without preamble, asked, "You _knew_ that earthquake was going to happen, didn't you?" 

She nearly dropped the cup in her hands, but managed to set it on the table without spilling too much. She reached for a handful of napkins, not looking at him as she cleaned up the mess. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"I think you do," Declan pressed.

She looked up at him, frowning and rising. "And I think _you_ are crazy," she announced, pointing at him. Shaking her head, she turned and stalked off.

Declan stared after her, stunned.

***

"Well, maybe you scared her?" Peggy suggested, shrugging. She sat down on her couch. "I mean, Declan, you accused the girl of being able to predict earthquakes. How did you expect her to react?"

"It's _wasn't_ an accusation!" Declan protested. "It was a simple question. And I think that the fact that she overreacted like she did points to something."

Peggy closed her eyes, shrugging. "Declan, you can't keep hounding this girl."

"I am _not_ hounding her. I've seen her _once_ since the café, and that was in class. I just don't get this sudden change in her behavior, Peg."

"Declan, I honestly think you scared her. That's what it sounds like to me."

"But _why_ should she be scared, Peggy?" Declan pressed. "Come on. At _most_, she should think I'm some kind of crackpot. Fear, though? That's just overreacting."

"Give it a little time. Maybe it'll pass."

"What if I'm right?" Declan asked.

"That she can predict earthquakes, Declan? It was a _coincidence_!"

"It was a _string_ of like _five_ coincidences, Peggy, and after two or three, they kind of stop being coincidences at all…"

"You want my advice, Declan? Just forget about it. I think it would be the best thing you could do for you _and_ her."

Declan sighed and nodded, rising. "Consider it forgotten."

"Going so soon?" Peggy asked, frowning.

"We've been arguing for over an hour," Declan told her with a grin. "I have class."

Peggy stared at her clock, shaking her head. "Time flies."

"Sure does. See you later, Peg."

"Bye, Declan," she said, smiling and shaking her head.


	2. Scientific Method

Author's Note: Honestly no clue if Miranda is going for her Master's or Ph.D. in physics, so I made it Ph.D. Sorry if this is wrong. Heck, I'm not even 100% that's she's a _grad_ student since this is my first season. If I'm wrong, kindly correct me and I'll correct myself. Thanks! Also, making up students professors left and right to avoid falling out of character with the existing ones we know about.

Chapter 2 -- Scientific Method

"What kind of test?" Gabe asked, shifting uncomfortably under Declan's scrutiny.

"It's like a guessing-game. You just guess the next shape in a random sequence."

"And after that you'll drop this whole thing?" she asked. "You promise."

"Yeah, if you want." He nodded. "Why does this scare you, Gabe?"

"It doesn't," she muttered, staring at her feet. "Just… Okay, fine, I'll take your stupid test. And then you have to promise to drop this."

"We'll discuss the results and then, if you want, I _will_ drop it," Declan promised, nodding.

"Okay." Gabe nodded, sighing. "How's this work? You do this… _test_?"  


He shook his head. "Doctor Craig will administer it."

She frowned. "Jenny?" she asked, frowning. Jennifer Craig was a tenured professor with the psychology department.

Declan nodded. Jenny had developed quite an interest in parapsychology in recent years and had eagerly agreed to help him out in this case, genuinely curious. "Or possibly one of her lab assistants."

Gabe nodded slowly. At least that way she knew that everything would be handled properly, scientifically. "When?"

"Well, I can make an appointment for you with her, or you can yourself."

"I'll do it," she said, shrugging sullenly.

Declan stared, startled. "You have a real problem with this, don't you?"

"_Minor _one, yeah."

"Want to talk about it?" he suggested. 

"_My_ discipline's job to ask questions like that," she informed him quietly, spinning on her heel and leaving.

Declan stared after her, startled. He could have sworn that the last had been spoken with hostility, but where had it _come_ from. Skepticism he could at least understand, but _hostility_? Shaking his head, he left the classroom to start setting his office to rights.

***

"How the _hell_ did the couch end up upside down?" Declan grunted to Mole, flipping it. 

"Maybe you and Miranda could run some tests?" a low voice suggested. The suggestion was accompanied by a laugh.

Declan smiled. "Hello, Peggy." He turned around, his smile fading slightly as he took in her appearance. _Blue-jeans_? Maybe he could get Miranda to run some tests on _that_ unusual occurrence. He shook that off, grinning at her again, with the smile that Gabe had remarked was too adorable to be legal. "Laundry day?" he teased.

"Miranda told me your office was trashed." Peggy paused for a split-second. "More trashed than usual," she amended, grinning at him. "So I thought I'd come offer to help." She looked around. "And I see that, as usual, she might have understated things slightly."

"Well, I think I got all of the glass up," Declan said, offering her a seat and rubbing the back of his neck. "I'd offer you a cup of coffee, but the coffee-maker didn't survive." He gestured to a partially-flattened hunk of plastic, metal, and wires on the floor next to a pile of broken glass, shaking his head. "Tragic…"

Peggy grinned and shook her head. "You're in a good mood, considering how much damage there is in here."  


"Books bounce," Declan told her with a grin. "Which means there was a _lot_ less damage than their could have been." He sighed and sat down next to her. "Miranda was _not_ as lucky."

Peggy frowned sympathetically, nodding. "I heard. Both computers, the gas chromatograph, microscopes…"

Declan nodded. "I was down there. The chalkboards are about the only thing that _did_ survive."

Peggy winced. "How's she taking it?"  


Declan shook his head. "Well, the entire physic's department's pretty upset, but right now, Miranda is rejoicing that her Dissertation was saved to disk and _not_ one of the lab's computers."

Peggy's eyes widened. She remembered the amount of work that had gone into her Dissertation, and she could well imagine what it would have been like to lose it and have to start over half-way through. "Now _that_ is lucky."

Declan nodded. "I ever tell you about the time I lost my thesis to an ill-timed lightening strike?"

"You didn't have a backup?" Peggy asked, staring.

"Sure did. _In_ the disk-drive at the time." He shook his head. "Damned thing _melted_."

Peggy's eyes widened. "Are they going to be able to recover what was on the computers?" she asked.

"Miranda says they think one may be salvageable, but the other's toast. Motherboard got snapped in two." Declan shook his head sympathetically. "A _lot_ of data lost there. I hear that the department head gave everyone an automatic extension on basically everything."

"Well that's _something_ at least, but…" Peggy shook her head. "It's got to really hurt."

Declan nodded. "And, according to Jennifer Craig, Physics isn't the only department in that fix. Lots of profs lost _lots_ of data."

Peggy shook her head. "Keeping backup disks is just common sense."

"You'd think so." Declan shrugged and rose, picking up a pile of papers and returning to the couch. "Next time remind me to staple. Paper-clips do _not_ stand up well to earthquakes, apparently." 

"Here." Peggy took the papers from him and began ordering them. In spite of the fact that the handful of papers represented not fewer than three of Declan's most recent academic papers, it was not particularly difficult to restore them to order, thanks in large part to his habit of scrawling the full title and 'page x of y' across the top of each page. Fortunately, the over 300 student papers had been safely filed away in a vertical-file.

"Thanks, Peg." Declan smiled gratefully and rose again. 

Restoring the office to order was a daunting task, one that he was beginning to think was hardly worth the effort. Of course, after three days of it, that opinion might have been slightly biased. It had been wonderful of Peggy to come help on her day off. He picked up the flier that had been distributed to all of the professors and stapled up all over campus. _Heavy lifting should be referred to the Physical Plant, live or exposed wires and damaged power outlets should be reported to Maintenance, damaged electrical equipment should not be unplugged while the power is on, broken glass should be reported to the janitorial staff, do not on any account touch exposed wires or broken glass…_ and so on and so on. Declan had broken _most _of these rules in the past three days, nearly electrocuting himself by unplugging what was left of the coffee-maker.

Peggy looked up, grinning. "Saw one of those posted in the elevator. Interesting how 'do not ride the elevators' was last on the list," she laughed. 

Declan grinned and nodded. "They don't turn them off, they don't post warnings…"

Peggy shook her head. Bureaucracy at its finest. "So, how many of those rules have _you_ broken?" Peggy asked with a challenging grin, knowing her friend. 

"Um… haven't been in the elevator…"

Peggy laughed and shook her head.

"Guys! We got a new coffee-maker in the physics lab!" Miranda announced cheerfully, almost _bouncing_ into Declan's office.

Declan regarded her with wide eyes. "And obviously someone's already tested it out."

Miranda shrugged, once more settling into her normal, more laid-back demeanor. "You guys want to come have some?"

"_Please_," Declan said, nodding.

Peggy nodded and rose. "How's the recovery on the computers coming?" she asked as they walked.

"Well, IT says that the main computer is _definitely _salvageable," Miranda reported. "It's on the waiting-list." She made a slight face. "Or, as they put it, 'in the pile'."

Declan winced at that phrasing, even if it _was_ typical of the IT gremlins. "What about the other one?"

"They'll do their best." Miranda shrugged. "I hear they've offered extra credit to any Comp Sci student who can pull anything off of it."

"So, basically it's toast?" Declan laughed. 

Miranda shrugged and nodded, then shook her head. The lab, when they walked into it, was in far better shape than Declan's office, but only by virtue of being almost completely empty. The Physics grad students had all gotten together and removed everything that had been damaged, throwing away what was obviously beyond repair and sending the rest for repairs.

"What I want to know is where we're going to get the money for a new chromatograph," Professor Jericho was muttering to one of her graduate assistants.

"Hey, maybe they'll be able fix it." He shrugged. "Oh, hey, Miranda, Professor… Dunn. Professor…" He paused, staring blankly at Peggy. He could not quite place her although he was sure he had seen her before.

"Fowler, Doctor," Miranda supplied. "She doesn't work her."

"Peggy," she said, extending her hand.

"Ben."

"Jerry," Doctor Jericho added, shaking Peggy's hand.

"Ben and Jerry," Declan remarked quietly, making Miranda roll her eyes.

Doctor Jericho was obviously more amused than Miranda. "Well, what was I going to do? Make him change his name?" She shrugged blithely. "So, you're Declan?"

"That's me." Declan smiled and shook her hand. "Nice to finally meet you."

"So, when do we get Miranda back?" she asked with a grin, referencing the girl's habit of spending more time with the Anth professor than with all of the Physics professors combined. 

"Um… I should be done with her in 20, 30 years." He grinned at the look on Miranda's face. "Dad, you're embarrassing me," he groaned.

Miranda stared at him, obviously more embarrassed now than she had been before.

Declan desisted, smiling. "So, Jerry, we hear that you've got the only working coffee-maker on campus."

"Actually, I think that three of the Psych grads brought theirs in from home." Jericho shrugged. "But they're barely meeting department requirements and I think you'd get your throat torn out for so much as _looking_ at one sideways."

"Psychologists and their mind-altering substances," Declan muttered, shaking his head.

"Funny," Jerry said, shaking her head and pouring three cups of coffee. "They say the exact same thing about _Anthropologists_." 

Declan looked at Peggy, doing his best to look like a wounded puppy-dog. "You do?"

"Drink your coffee," Peggy suggested, shaking her head and thanking Jericho for her own. 

"Oh, Declan, what did Gabriella Watts say about those tests?" Miranda asked after a few moments of comfortable silence.

Peggy turned to glance at Declan who was shaking his head and waving his arms at Miranda. She raised an eyebrow. "I thought you planned on dropping it?"

"Well…" Declan shifted uncomfortably, then said defensively, "Come on, Peggy. When have you ever known _me_ to drop anything?"

"Good point." Peggy shook her head. "What tests?"

"You know, just some standard pre-cog flash-card things…"

Ben raised an eyebrow but kept his mouth shut, largely due to the look that Jericho was giving him.

Peggy shrugged. The test was harmless enough, and when miss Watts got the standard 15 to 25 percent right, then Declan would admit failure and drop it.

"Thanks for the coffee, Jerry, but I really should finish getting my office squared away," Declan said.

Jericho nodded. "Guess I really should as well," she sighed. "Ben, extra credit?" she offered, smiling at his groan.

***

"You honestly believe this crap?" Gabe asked Doctor Jennifer Craig.

"Let's just say that I haven't seen anything to substantially disprove it, yet."

"Yeah, but no proof either."

Jenny looked up at Gabe. "You should know better. As psychologists, it's not our job to prove or disprove anything."

Gabe rolled her eyes and nodded. "Only to develop theories and support or refute them. Whatever."

Jenny smiled and held up a deck of cards. "Five different images are printed on these. This is double-blind, so I won't be seeing them either. You just tell me what _you_ think it is. Don't think too hard about it, just go with your first instinct."

"Yeah, whatever." Gabe nodded and sat down.

"Shapes are: star, square, circle, cross, wavy lines. Ready?"

"Yeah." Gabe shrugged. "Whatever."

"Try to keep an open mind. I once had a student get almost 50% right, which is--"

"More than twice as many as could be expected by chance," Gabe recited, rolling her eyes.

  
Jenny sighed. "Okay, now that we've established that you paid attention is Statistics and are less than open to the process, can we get started?"

"How long will this take?" Gabe asked.

"There are two hundred cards. Most people don't take more than a few seconds per card. If you need a break, or feel a headache coming on, just let me know and we'll take a breather."  


Gabe nodded. "Shoot." She looked at the card that Jenny was holding in front of a screen so that all Gabe could see was the white side and Jenny could not see anything at all. "Um, star."

"Okay." Jenny made a quick mark on her pad and picked up the next card.

  
"Square. Circle. Circle. Cross. Lines. Star…" 

Gabe answered rapid-fire, as soon as the card was held up, not really caring how well she did. She just wanted Professor Dunn off of her back. Her parents, she knew, would have been appalled by the mere suggestion of something like this. _Seeing_ the future? Predicting earthquakes? In her eyes, it was crazy. In theirs, probably evidence of some demonic pact. All she needed was for them to be more scared of her than they already, for some inconceivable reason, were. Her mind wandered during the test, on the poetry reading she was attending tonight with her friends, the jam-session they planned for afterwards, the paper that was due next week, everything but what was on those stupid cards.

Jenny sighed as she held up the last card. Obviously Gabriella had neither tried nor even paid attention to the process. She would have to mention it to Declan when she reported the girl's scores.

"Um…" Gabe paused. For some reason, she was having trouble randomly selecting a shape for this one. "Circle?" she finally said, strangely indecisive over it.

Jenny nodded and noted it down. "Thank you, Gabe. Now I just need you to sign this so I can release your results to Declan."

Gabe nodded and signed the form.

"And did you want a copy of the results as well? I can drop one in your mailbox?"

Gabe shrugged. "Whatever works for you."

"And I don't suppose you'd be interested in participating in research of this nature in the future? Maybe even _trying_ this time?" Jenny asked, trying _not_ to let the irritation she felt creep into her voice.  


"Not particularly, no." Gabe shook her head and left.

Jenny stared after her with a sigh, wondering if it was even worth her time to bother scoring the girl. Gabe's results would only foul up Jenny's numbers, so she would not bother including her in those, but as a favor to Declan she decided to score the test anyway. Sighing, she picked up the cards, shuffled before the testing had begun, and began noting down the images on each, next to Gabe's guess. Yup, her score was abysmally low, as Jenny has suspected it would be. She had maybe 8 percent right. 

Jenny frowned. That was far too low. By chance, she should be expected to get around 20 percent right. 8 percent _was_ a notable score if only for how low it was. Thoughtfully, she tapped her pencil against the paper, musing the implications of the score, staring at the answers before her, trying to make sense of them, of what the unusually low score meant.

  
When if clicked into place, Jenny did something she had not done in over 20 years. She swore.


	3. One To Several Trillion Against

****

Chapter 3 -- One to Several Trillion Against

"Eight percent?" Declan repeated, frowning. "That's low."

"Low, but notable for how low it is, right," Jenny said, her voice taking on an eager edge.

Declan nodded, digging into his memory for information he had not heard since his undergrad psychology classes. "Isn't there a parallel… um… I know I've heard of these kind of low scores being significant in and of themselves _somewhere_ in psychology."  


She nodded. "Conversion blindness is the prime example. You flash a dot into a person's field of sight. Left, right, or dead center and ask them to guess where it was. If they're truly blind, they're going to guess right about 33 percent of the time. With Conversion blindness you see _much_ lower numbers. The person's mind is reacting the way it _thinks_ a blind person _should_. By missing a _lot_ more consistently than you would by chance."

"You think that's what she was doing? Missing on purpose?"

"That's what I thought at first, yeah, especially given how her mind was _obviously_ miles away, but then I really _looked_ at her answers and what I saw… I mean, jeez, Declan, I've never seen anything like this!" Grinning excitedly, she picked up two sheets of paper. "Here are her answers," she said, handing him one. "And here are the actual answers."

Declan laid them side by side, comparing. There was a definite pattern there, he just could not _see_ it, even though he knew it was there. He started reading the answers to himself in a whisper and _then_ the pattern fell into place. 

"She's guessing the _next_ card in the sequence instead of the current one," he whispered.

She nodded gravely. "With over 90% accuracy, no less."

Declan stared, wide-eyed. "What are the odds on something like that?"

"One to several trillion against. Give or take a few hundred-thousand." 

  
Declan rubbed his mouth. "This girl is the real thing, then?"

Jenny nodded. "Yes. I want a PET scan. As a _start_…"

  
"She's not going to like that." Declan sighed. "She's resistant to this whole idea."  


"So I noticed."

"She was scared, hostile," Declan said. "I seriously doubt that she's going to want to take this any further."

"The woman predicts earthquakes, Declan," Jenny pointed out quietly. "God only knows what else she's capable of."

He nodded. "I _know_, Jenny, but…"

"But how do you force someone to use an ability like that?" She nodded. "And the answer is that you can't. You said she's scared? Well, something happened to cause that. We need to find out what and _deal_ with it."

Declan nodded slowly. "I'll talk to her and see what I can do."

"Going to wait until Monday?" Jenny asked. 

Declan nodded. "I kind of have to… I don't know where she spends her off-time."

"I can find out in five minutes," she offered.

Declan nodded. "Sounds good."

Jenny opened her office door. "Hey, James?"

"Yeah, Doctor Craig?" a young man asked, looking up from the Psych department's front desk.

"You know Gabe Watts, right?"

He nodded. "Sure."

"Where's she spend her Fridays?" 

"Um, library before class. Afterwards, her and a group of friends usually hit the Firefly. They're there until the manager kicks them out most nights."

"Thanks." Jenny nodded and closed the office door again. She looked at Declan. "You know the Firefly?"

He nodded. "Coffee shop by campus, isn't it?"

Jenny nodded. "The Psych grads pretty much claim it as their own on the weekends. Them and the English majors."

Declan nodded. "Thanks, Jenny. I'll talk to her."

She smiled. "Go easy on her, Declan. I've had her in a couple of classes and she's… _skittish_…" 

Declan raised an eyebrow and nodded. "I'd noticed. Any idea why?"

Jenny shook her head. "She's a nice enough kid, but she doesn't talk much, especially about herself."

  
Declan had noticed that, too. "Well, I'll see what I can do about that, too."

Jenny frowned faintly. "Be careful. Bite-shy animals tend to be pretty quick to bite, themselves."

Declan smiled. "Don't worry. I just had a tetanus shot." Winking, he left the office.

***

Entering the coffee-shop, Declan could see its appeal to the graduate students who frequented it. Larger than it looked on the outside, it was littered with normal tables and chairs, couches, end-table, coffee-tables, overstuffed arm-chairs, as well as a long bar lined with bar-stools. And judging from the menus chalked behind the bar, it did as brisk a trade in herbal teas as it did in coffees. Part were dim, other parts bright, and clusters of students sat everywhere, talking quietly or with more animation, studying in silence, typing on laptops, or just enjoying their coffee or tea, often with a pastry or slice of pie. There was a largish stage on one end of the shop, and a placard proclaimed Fridays to be amateur-poetry night. No one was on the stage now except for a young woman setting up a microphone and stool.

Declan walked up to the bar where Gabe was sitting, bent over a book. "What's good here?"

"Everything," she replied quietly without looking up. "Try the chamomile and leave me alone."

"Do you know what your problem is?" Declan asked, sitting down next to her.

She slammed her book shut, Freud's _Totem and Taboo_, and glared at him. "Um, I'm being stalked by an Anthropology Professor?" she ventured. 

"I am _not_ stalking you!" he protested.

"No, but you _are_ annoying me."

Declan frowned and shook his head. "What's with the 180 towards me, huh?" 

"You're a smart man, you figure it out," she told him, burying her nose in the book again.

"Jenny told me about your results."

  
"Great. Will you leave me alone now?"

"Yeah. Just as soon as I tell you that we're both relatively confident that you're the real thing."

"_Please_!" she scoffed.

"You were predicting the next card in the sequence with over 90% accuracy." 

The book fell from her hands at that pronouncement and she stared at him in stunned silence for several minutes. "Fluke," she finally announced. "Must be. _Fifty_ percent is considered statistically significant in parapsychology."

Declan blinked. "You've done your homework on this," he realized.

"So?"

"You _knew_?" he asked.

She rolled her eyes. "These things don't happen in the real world, Professor. It was a fluke." Sighing, she rose. "If you'll excuse me, I'm first up." She nodded towards the stage and then started in that direction, riffling through her pockets for the poem she was going to read.

"Um, Gabe," Declan called after her.

She turned, frowning uncertainly.

Declan held up a sheet of paper that had been sitting on the bar in front of her while she was reading her book. He smiled faintly. She had a habit of putting things in plain sight so she would not lose them and then managing to look right through them anyway. Strange for a girl with her… talents. Maybe some kind of defense-mechanism. Or maybe her ability to foresee what was going to happen simply did not include her. 

"Thank you," she whispered, accepting the sheet of paper.

Declan gave her a reassuring smile. "This is something we need to talk about, Gabe."

"Not here, not now." She shook her head, looking distressed.

"When?" he asked.

"Monday. Just… not this weekend. I… I have plans."

Declan nodded, surprised by how unsettled and genuinely upset she seemed. "Monday. After class."  


She nodded weakly.

"Mind if I stay and listen to your poem?"

"If you want." She nodded and turned towards the stage, only to be intercepted by a young man and a younger woman.

"Come _on_, Gabe!" the young man said, grabbing her arm. "We're _waiting_."

"Lose your own head if it wasn't screwed on," the girl added.

"She lost _that_ years ago," the young man said, drawing laughs from all three.

Declan watched as Gabe allowed herself to be pulled towards the stage, curious as to what a girl like her was doing reading poetry for a crowd this size. While not _exactly_ shy, she was hardly sociable, either, and he had always assumed that she disliked public speaking. She adjusted the microphone, rested her elbows on the stool instead of sitting on it, and began reading, not really looking at the sheet in her hands.

Declan might not have been a literary expert, but he knew what he liked and Gabe's poem about alienation was definitely on the list. When she was done, he joined in the standing ovation. She was a multifaceted young woman, to be sure. He was a little disappointed when she joined a group of friends instead of returning to talk to him some more, but he understood. Ordering a large chamomile tea to go, he left. Gabe observed his departure with relief.

"Who was the guy?" 

"What, Grant?" Gabe asked, looking up at him. She had not really been paying attention to anything other than Declan's progress out the door.

"The guy you were talking to," Grant clarified, sliding an arm around Angie, his fiancée.

"Oh, that's professor Dunn."

"That Anth guy you're always going on about?" Debbie asked, chugging her mocha. "You forgot to mention that he's also a babe."

"Deb, you think any guy with a 5 o'clock shadow and a Ph.D. is cute," Angie pointed out, laughing.

  
Debbie tried to look offended but failed. "I'll have you know that they have to wear glasses, too," she laughed, rising to get a refill.

Bill, usually the quiet one in the group commented in a low voice, "Someone needs to switch her to decaf." He shrugged. "Good poem, Gabe. Almost believed for a second that you actually felt that way."

"Maybe I do," she said quietly.

Angie laughed softly. "How did you put it in the poem? 'Leave me alone, let me live my lie'?"

Gabe nodded, her good mood evaporating. "'Cause it's my lie, and it's all I have left." She glanced at her watch. "I should go now."

"We were going to play later!" Grant protested.

"I know. But my head hurts." Gabe shrugged apologetically. "Look, tomorrow night, me _and_ my guitarwill be here at the normal time."

"Okay. Need a ride home, sweetie?" Bill offered.

Gabe shook her head. "No thanks. You guys have fun. Bill, do a couple riffs for me."

"In a Gadda de Vida, baby," Bill promised with a grin. "Just for you."

"Thanks. Night, guys." Forcing herself to smile at them, Gabe turned and left the coffee-shop, breaking into sobs as soon as she was behind the wheel of her car.

***

Declan drove, lost in thought. The more he considered the poem Gabe had recited, the less he liked what it had to say about her, about her life.

__

Leave me alone, 

let me live my lie.

'Cause it's my lie

and it's all I have left.

…

My life? A web of lies.

And me? A spider?

Or one of the flies?

As good, as moving as the poem had been, it left him wondering about Gabe herself, about what he _thought_ he knew about her. Did she really consider her whole life a façade? And, if so, why? And was she starting to feel trapped by the web of lies that was her life?

Declan sighed and shook his head, confused and more than a little worried about her. It was not _exactly _a premonition, but it was not far off, either. He stopped at the first gas-station he passed and left a message on her machine, apologizing and asking her to call him. Sighing, he leaned against the phone-booth wall, wondering at his growing sense of dread.


	4. All I Want

****

Chapter 4 -- All I Want…

Peggy was catching a few minutes of shut-eye on the couch in her office when the door opened. 

"Doctor Fowler, we could use you in the ER," an orderly said.

Peggy yawned and sat up. "Suicide attempt?" she guessed, rising.

"No, car accident, actually."

Peggy frowned, confused by what they would need with a psychiatrist for.

"Anxiety attack."

"Ah." Peggy nodded and followed, grateful that it was nothing too serious. Accident victims often had anxiety reactions. Straightening her clothes and smoothing her hair, Peggy followed the orderly to the ER.

The girl was sitting on a bed, hugging her knees and sobbing quietly, not even noticing that her hospital gown was slipping off of one shoulder as they had a habit of doing. Peggy could tell without even glancing at her chart that her injuries were not serious, but she picked it up anyway to get a feel for what had happened. No alcohol in the girl's system, no other cars involved, and the roads had been dry. That alone set off red flags with Peggy. The name caused her to raise an eyebrow. Declan's earthquake-predicting student?

"Gabriella?" she asked softly, moving to stand next to the girl.

Gabe looked up, startled. She was jumpy in spite of the drugs they had shot into her IV when she had started to freak out. "Um… hi."

"My name's Peggy. I'm a psychiatrist. They said you had an anxiety attack?"

Gabe nodded, not looking at Peggy, a little ashamed. "Yeah, when they brought me in I guess I kind of freaked. But they gave me some Klonopin in my IV and I'm a lot better now." 

"Why are you still crying?" Peggy asked gently. "Are you in pain?"

"Little." She shrugged and shook her head. "Not so bad that I need anything for it."

Peggy nodded and pulled a chair next to the bed. "Why don't you tell me about the accident?" she suggested gently.

She hesitated for a moment, sighing. "I shouldn't have been driving. I couldn't see the road very well…"

"Were you tired?" Peggy asked softly.

"I was crying," she admitted quietly.

"What were you crying about, Gabriella?" Peggy asked gently, making a mental note to have a _long_ talk with Declan.

"I… I just… sometimes life's good, sometimes not so good. This has been one of the not so good weeks."

"Would you like to talk about it?" Peggy suggested gently.

"You ever tell a lie for so long that you start thinking it's the truth?" Gabe said abruptly. 

Peggy nodded. "I don't think that there's anyone in the world who isn't guilty of that."

"And then the walls come crashing down." Gabe shifted the errant sleeve of her hospital gown, pulling it up again. "You know, the ironic part is that I was on my way to get drunk…" She laughed bitterly. "Don't drink, alcohol's evil. But I was going to go get drunk."

"Alcohol's evil?" Peggy repeated softly.

"Uh-huh. Or so I've always been told. Alcohol, drugs, smoking, cursing, television, Internet…" She trailed off, snorting derisively. "Basically, all of the fun stuff."

"So you come from a pretty conservative religious background."

"My parents were Pentecostals." Gabe extended her left forearm for Peggy's inspection. There were two small, round scars, side by side near the crook of her elbow. They were not the only ones, but as the most recent, they were the most visible. "Actual, honest to God, snake-handling, tongue-speaking, Pentecostals."

"Sounds like you don't really agree with a lot of their practices," Peggy observed.

"If I wanted to be told that it was evil for me to wear pants and go to college, I'd join the Taliban," came the bitter rejoinder.

"Must have been hard for you," Peggy said softly. "Especially after that snake bit you." She knew enough about snake-handlers to know that they believed that getting bitten indicated a lack of faith.

"That's why I got out." Gabe yawned. "Sorry. Drugs…"

"It's okay," Peggy assured her, smiling reassuringly. "Is there anyone you'd like me to call for you? Anyone who should know you're here?"

  
"As long as I'm out by Monday morning, I'm fine."

"Not your family? What about your friends?" 

"Nah, they'd just worry." She shook her head.

Peggy considered this reaction. "Why don't you tell me about this lie of yours, Gabriella."

"Not a lot to tell, really." Gabe shrugged. 

Peggy took a deep breath, unable to believe what she was about to do. "That's not how I've heard it, Gabriella. Declan tells me a different story."

"Stupid freaking coincidences," Gabe grumbled. 

"Declan doesn't believe in coincidences," Peggy told her softly.

"Declan's a _fool!_"

"You honestly believe that?" Peggy asked softly.

"Has he _told_ you what he believes about me?"

Peggy nodded. "And he told me about the test you took, and your results, and he said that he was going to talk to you about them. Is that why you were crying?"

Gabe shook her head furiously. "All I want…" She took a deep breath and slammed her mouth shut.

Peggy looked up as the heart monitor started beeping faster.

"Just close your eyes and take some deep breaths," Peggy suggested gently, walking Gabe through a breathing exercise. It took better than fifteen minutes for the girl to calm down again, and, even then, Peggy waited before asking, "What do you want, Gabriella?"

"To be normal." Gabe shrugged. "It's not a _lot_ to ask, you know. I don't want to get incredible grades, or be incredibly popular, or particularly attractive, just… normal."

Peggy nodded understandingly. "Gabriella, they want to keep you over-night, so I'd like you to try to get some sleep now. And I want to talk to you again before you leave, okay?"

Gabe nodded slowly. "Okay."

"Get some rest now, and I'll be here all night if you need anything."

"Thank you, Doctor."

"Call me Peggy." Peggy smiled gently. "Now get some rest."

Gabe nodded. "I'll try."

Peggy nodded and left the room. "Let's get 10 mils of Ambien into miss Watts," she suggested. "I don't think she's going to be able to sleep otherwise."

The night-nurse nodded and rose to get the sleep-aid. "Yes, Doctor Fowler."

"Call me right away if she asks for me or if she gets another anxiety-attack," Peggy added over her shoulder as she left. 

Shaking her head, she stepped into the elevator and returned to her office. She glanced at the clock for a few moments before picking up the phone and dialing Declan's home-number.

"Gabe?" Declan yawned into the phone.

"Not exactly," Peggy replied, startled. "Were you _expecting_ to hear from her tonight?"

"Um, I was worried, left a message…"

"Oh." Peggy nodded. "Declan, she's here. I just talked to her."

"Oh, my God. What did she do?" Declan asked, all traces of drowsiness vanishing from his voice.

"She got into a car accident, Declan. She was crying and couldn't see the road."

"Oh, God," Declan muttered. "Is she okay?"

"She's shaken up."

"I'll bet."

"Um, Declan, you were… I think you might have been right about her."

"You're going to be there for awhile?"

"Yeah." She was on-call all night, and was spending the night in her office as she often did under those circumstances.

"I'll be right over."

Peggy nodded and hung up, sighing. Whether Declan had been right about the girl's particular talent or not, her upbringing was troubling to Peggy. Excessive religiosity in a child's upbringing was not usually part of the formula for good mental health in adults. A healthy level of religious participation was one thing, definitely beneficial, but that girl had _snake-bites_. More than one, several at least 15 years old, which would have made her 7 or 8 when she had been bitten. There was _nothing_ healthy about that.

The girl would have been subject to some _very _severe alienation from her parents if, as she had said, they viewed it as evil for a female to attend college. Peggy could only assume that discipline had been harsh and frequently administered. She could not help but recall the movie _Carrie_. The overly-religious mother, convinced that her daughter's gift was of the Devil. If Gabriella actually _had_ such a gift, had her parents viewed it in a similar light.

She sighed deeply.

"Hey, you okay?" Declan asked softly, knocking on the open door. 

"Yeah, Declan." She nodded. "Just thinking about Gabriella."

He nodded. 

"You mentioned that her results were pretty extraordinary?" she asked, rising and offering him a seat.

  
Declan nodded. "She was right better than 90% of the time for the next card in the sequence. That is… _unprecedented_, Peg."

"She's so scared, Declan," Peggy said softly. "All she wants is to be a normal kid."

Declan sighed and nodded. "I know, Peggy, but she's _not_. She can't ignore this gift of hers."

"I _seriously_ doubt that she views it as a gift," Peggy told him. "She says all she wants is to be normal."

Declan frowned. "Thus, she views her gift as _ab_normal."

"Right." Peggy nodded and sighed. "Declan…"

"I know, Peg." He shook his head. "I know…"

"You can't push her on this."

"I can't _not_," Declan protested. "Peggy, this is… _huge_. This girl is _proof_. Do you know how many lives she could save if she worked at that Earthquake Prediction Center?"

"None, because no one listens to them, Declan," Peggy sighed.

"Well, can I talk to her?" Declan asked.

"In the morning, if she wants to."

Declan nodded. "_You_ want company?"

"You were sound asleep when I called, Declan. Wouldn't you rather go home to bed than wait for Gabriella to wake up?"

"Who said anything about Gabe? I asked if _you_ wanted company." Declan smiled at her, testing out Gabe's 'too adorable to resist' theory, and was rewarded with a smile and a nod. Peggy's smile alone was worth pretty much any hassle. Hell, he would have gone to see a chick-flick with that smile alone as the pay-off.

"So, how is your office coming?" Peggy asked, pouring him a cup of coffee.

"Thanks." He grinned at her again and was rewarded with yet another smile. Wow, her smile was gorgeous. "Well, it's moved from looking like an earthquake hit it to looking like a tornado hit it."

Peggy smiled again, sitting down next to him. "Well, I _think_ that qualifies as progress," she laughed.

Declan nodded. "The students were _very_ disappointed to find out that the papers survived in-tact." He shook his head, chuckling. "Tragic piece of luck."

Peggy smiled and shook her head.

"So, what chick-flick are you and Miranda planning on dragging me to next weekend?"

"Haven't decided yet." Peggy smiled wickedly. "We'll settle on something… suitable."

"Ouch…" Declan shook his head and leaned back on the couch. "Something tells me I'm going to be too sick to attend."

Peggy laughed and shook her head. "What makes you think Miranda and I will take 'no' for an answer?" she inquired casually, drawing a groan from Declan.

***

Gabe looked up at the knock on her door. "Come in."

"Hey, Gabe," Declan said, walking in. "Peggy tells me they want to keep you for a few days?"

She nodded slowly. "She says that she thinks I'm having some kind of situational anxiety thing. So they want to keep me and make sure it's not a full-blown panic disorder."

"What do you think?" Declan asked gently, walking over to her bedside. "You blame me?"

She shook her head. "No," she sighed. "You may be the trigger, but you are not the cause."

"You want to talk about it?" Declan asked, sitting down next to her.

"There isn't much to say. My upbringing was messed up, ergo, so am I." She shrugged. "Did you get my paper graded?"

Declan reached into folder he was carrying and handed it to her. "Ninety-eight percent, highest grade in the class. As usual."

She glanced over the paper, covered with red marks, though mostly notes of approval or agreement or suggestions for other books she might be interested. "I'm glad you liked it."

"I liked you poem, too," he told her. "But it worried me a little."

"Look, Declan, I know you're trying to help or whatever, but I don't want any part of this. All I want is to get my degree and help people."

"There are a _lot_ of ways to help people," he pointed out. "Don't overlook this gift you have in that. You saved my life, Gabe. I'm grateful for that."

"Yeah, but…" She shook her head.

"Peggy said I should ask about your parents."

"I scare them. Because I know things."

"Oh," he said softly. That must have been so hard for her.

"Growing up, I had to hide who I really was. Not just this… _gift_ of yours. I was too smart, too curious, too adventurous. I had to pretend to be this person, this _stranger_…"

Declan nodded slowly. "That must have been so hard for you, but…"

"It's time to make a decision." She nodded. "I know that. Peg and I had a long talk this morning."

"That's good." Declan nodded. "Gabe, honey, your web of lies does _not_ agree with you. Give being the real you a shot, see how it agrees with you."

"I'm honestly not even sure if I remember her." Gabe sighed.

"She's there, just waiting to be rediscovered. Consider it, Gabe."

She nodded. "I'm… not going to be in class on Monday…"

Declan smiled and pulled more papers out of the folder in his hand. "Here are the class notes and the homework. I can bring your books later, if you want."

"That's okay. My friend Bill already brought them by." She nodded towards a stack of books on the windowsill. "Thank you, though."

"Look, Gabe, when you're out of here, when you've made that decision, let's get another cup of coffee and talk about things."

She smiled. "I'd like that, Professor."

"I'll visit tomorrow if you want," he offered.

"Can you bring Mole?"

He smiled and nodded. "I'll see if I can get the administrators to bend the rules. See you soon, Gabe."


	5. Acceptance

****

Chapter 5 -- Acceptance

"Questions?" Declan asked as class began to wrap up. He was lecturing on Maori tattooing rituals. 

"How'd they prevent infection?"

Declan looked up. It was a good question, and it had come from Gabe. He smiled at her, glad to see her back in class. "Um, the ash that they rubbed into the cuts had certain antiseptic properties… which we will discuss on Friday," he added, glancing at his watch. "See you then." His smile widened as she walked down the aisle to give Mole his customary pet. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I have a lot to come to terms with." She shrugged. "My parents would be freaked, I think. I made another appointment with Jenny for more testing, and she says that there's this Earthquake Prediction Center in Cali, but… Peggy says I have a lot of work to do first."

Declan nodded. "You haven't _just_ been lying to the rest of the world. You've been doing a pretty good job of fooling yourself. It's going to take time to separate the truths from the lies. Buy you that cup of coffee now?"

"I'd like that." She smiled and nodded.

"Pentecostals, huh?" Declan asked as they settled down in a pair of overstuffed armchairs nestled away in an inconspicuous corner at the Firefly.

She nodded. "Want to see my snake-bites?" she offered with a wry grin.

"Snake-_bites_? Plural?"  


"Faith was never my strong-suit." She shrugged, grinning. "I got bit a lot. I guess that's right around when it started."

"The snake-bites gave you this ability?"

She shook her head. "The ability led to the snake-bites. Snakes know fear, that's why the faithful don't get bitten. I thought there was something evil in me, so I got bit a lot." She shrugged. "Amazing I survived long enough to get out, I guess."

"How old were you when you started showing this ability?" Declan asked gently.

"Um… I couldn't have been but four or five. I knew that my baby sister was going to die before my parents even knew she was sick."

"I'm sorry," he said softly.

"She could have been saved, but they didn't believe in medical care, either." She shook her head. "I think on some level they must have blamed me. Like by saying it I made it happen. They were scared of me after that, and I learned to stop saying things out loud."

"But that didn't change what you had."

She shook her head. "The ability was still there. But… I listened to my parents, considered it aberrant, evil. So I did my best to stifle it."

"How do you stifle something like that?" Declan asked, interested.  


"I did some research, found out that there are some medicines that dull those kinds of abilities, made up some symptoms next time I was at the doctor. The medicines made me scatter-brained, but… it seemed worth it."

Declan nodded. "I've heard of people who drink to get rid of premonitions."

She nodded. "Yeah, me too, but I couldn't bring myself to do that. I was brought up to believe that alcohol is evil. Of course, so is medical care, but it's a lesser evil.

Declan nodded. "You still on these pills?"

She shook her head. "Peggy got me off of them. Um, it's… hard. More premonitions now, and I have kind of a hard time controlling them."

"Jenny can help you with that," Declan assured her.

"That's what she said." Gabe smiled and nodded. "And Peggy showed me some meditation techniques and stuff that really do seem to help."

"That's great." Declan nodded. "So, no more lying to yourself?"

She nodded firmly. "Yeah. All I ever wanted, Declan, was to be normal. I was afraid that if people knew, they would think I was a freak, or evil, or both. But you don't and Peggy doesn't and Jenny doesn't. And my friends don't so far." She smiled faintly at that. "Telling Bill was the hardest thing I've ever done, and he said it was a big duh. He knew when I looked at Angie and Grant and announced that they'd end up married. Telling the others is going to be harder."

"Nothing says you have to. The important thing isn't admitting it to _them_," Declan pointed out.

"No, guess not." She shrugged. "Jenny's got this whole battery of tests she wants to do on me. I… I don't know how I feel about that."

"Maybe some day?" Declan suggested gently. "You've got a lot to resolve before anything gets decided for sure."

"I was so afraid that Bill would hate me," she whispered. "Which is so stupid, because he's just not like that…"

Declan nodded. "You were, what do you call it? Projecting?"

She nodded. "My feelings on to him, yeah. I spent so much of my life hating myself, the real me, that I guess I just kind of expected that the rest of the world would, too, if they found out my deep dark secret."

"You still think of it that way?"

"I don't know." She shrugged. "I've got better than 20 years of indoctrination telling me that this _thing _I have is evil."

"Gabe, I research miracles. You know that?"

"Sure." She nodded. "Everyone knows that. Peggy and some physics student help you, right?"

Declan nodded. "Yeah, Peggy and Miranda. When you and I first met, you reminded me a lot of Miranda when I first met _her._ Shy, withdrawn, smart, but didn't think too highly of yourself. She's changed a _lot_ in the last few years. I'd like to see that for you. I don't want you to spend the rest of your life disliking yourself."

"I know." She nodded. "It's not healthy. But how do you overcome a lifetime of being told that the thing which makes you different from everyone else is evil?"

Declan sighed. "Miracles, Gabe. I've seen enough to know that they come in many different forms. Now, whatever else may be true of your gift, it _did_ save my life. How can that be evil?" he asked gently.

She sat silently, staring into her coffee. "Maybe it's just in what you _do_ with it," she murmured finally.

"You could have something there, Gabe." Declan smiled at her. "Definitely something to think about."

Her watch-alarm went off. "I've got to get to class now, Declan. See you Friday?"

He smiled and nodded. "I'll be there."

"Cool." She smiled and rose. "And, um… thank you. For everything."

Declan smiled and watched her go. She was definitely going to be okay.

***

"So, she's agreed to let Jenny run the first battery of tests," Declan told Peggy. "And she's in touch with the Earthquake Prediction Center."

Peggy smiled and nodded. "And her self-esteem has seen a definite boost in just the past few days. She said the two of you have been talking a lot." She smiled at Declan. "I'm not sure what you said, but it definitely had an impact on her."

Declan smiled. "I'm glad. She's said some stuff that's had an impact on me, too."

"Really?" Peggy raised an eyebrow. "Such as?"

Declan smiled and shook his head. "I'll never tell," he chanted in a sing-song voice.

Peggy rolled her eyes. "Predictions?"

"Just one prediction," Declan told her, smiling.

"Dare I ask?"

"Ask all you want. I'm still not telling you." Declan laughed again. "Let's just say that it's in regards to the future Mrs. Dunn."

"Ah…" Peggy smiled and nodded. "So, tell me about 'the future Mrs. Dunn'?"  


"She has a beautiful smile," Declan replied with a wink, turning and leaving the office. He had promised to be with Gabe for her first PET scan. 

"Oh, there you are!" she exclaimed as he walked into the waiting room. "I was afraid you weren't going to come."

"I promised." Declan smiled at her and thought of a number between one and a hundred.

Gabe rolled her eyes. "Forty-two. Next time try to be more original." 

Declan laughed and nodded, promising to be more original in the future.

"Did you tell her?" Gabe asked as they walked into the room where the PET scan was going to take place.

"Nah." Declan shook his head. "Figured I'd surprise her." He grinned at her.

"Have I mentioned that that level of adorableness should be illegal in adults?" she laughed.

"More than once. Where's Bill?" he asked, looking around. Like Declan, Gabe's boyfriend had promised to be present.

Her smile wavered. "Kuwait."

Declan's eyes widened. "I'm sorry."  


She shook her head. "Don't be. He'll be fine."

"You sure?"

"Yup." She nodded. "Also _relatively_ sure that our firstborn is going to be named Declan."

****

The End

So, what do you think? Should I bother writing more Mysterious Ways fic or is it just not my forte? Good, bad, or ugly, feedback is a writer's friend. Let me know. Thanks!


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